Rabies Is a Deadly Viral

Rabies is a deadly viral infection that has a history of more than four thousand years. The disease is generally known to be transmitted through animal bite or scratch. The disease is mainly found in wild animals, primarily mammals. Almost all mammals can be subjected to be infected by rabies. Although rabies originates in wildlife species, it can however be transmitted to domestic animals and human beings by bite and scratch. This is commonly possible due to abundance of stray animals in areas of human settlements.

As far as Florida is concerned, raccoons have so far maintained a consistent record of carrying rabies. After raccoons, foxes and bats have the highest rate of carrying rabies. While after its initial discovery in Florida, the state government took significant measures and took control of the spread of the disease, rabies resurfaced again in the late twentieth century. After 2002, the spread of rabies rapidly increased in Florida. This was due to abundance of stray animals near urban settlements and an increasing trend of keeping raccoons as pets. Another major contributing factor was translocation of raccoons from others states by hunting clubs in Florida. The government again managed to control the disease to an extent after 2007. In the past decade, 2007 saw the peak of rabies increase.

Researchers have discovered that the increase in rabies have been positively correlated to epizootic and seasonal factors. The disease was seen more common in densely populated areas rather than mildly populated ones.

While no such cases have been reported in Florida, another contributing that emerged was a possibility of transmission of rabies due to organ transplantation. It is concluded that once symptoms occur, rabies cannot be cured as a disease. However, if prompt and effective preventive measures are taken, the disease can be prevented completely. These preventive measures include vaccination of animals against rabies, post exposure immunization for humans if bitten, abidance to animal law and disease control laws outlined by the government and consideration of neurological symptoms when considering brain dead patients as donors for organ transplantation.

Introduction

Rabies is a viral infection that originates in wild animals. This infection though can be transmitted from one animal to another or from an animal to human beings generally by the action of biting. The disease basically affects the nervous system of the animal or human being that had been bitten. Once infected, the symptoms of the disease occur due to the inflammation or swelling in the nervous system. The disease has a proven history of being a deadly one and the only cure to the disease is to get vaccinated for the rabies shots much before the symptoms occur. Mainly the animals that are known to have carried some form of rabies especially in the region of United States of America include dogs, bats, raccoons, and skunks, foxes, beavers, cats, cows and otters.

The government of the United States of America has taken various measures over a period of time in order to reduce the prevalence of rabies in the country. Recent reports have shown a significant decline in the number of reported cases of rabies among human over a period of time. This has been made possible by enforcing strict laws pertaining to Rabies control. The vaccination laws for domestic animals have been enforced much more strictly than ever before. Rabies control departments have also been set up in states across the United States of America in order to ensure that stray dogs and wild animals can be kept away from the general public. This is because stray animals are more likely to be carrying rabies germs as compared to the domestic animals as unlike domestic animals; they do not go through regular vaccinations and other rabies control measures.

While the origin of rabies dates back to over 4000 years ago, the disease was first discovered in the United States of America in the mid 1700s in the state of Virginia. It was later discovered in Boston and other North American towns as well. The disease started became much more widely spread in the United States of America in the late 1700s. Between the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, major research was carried out on rabies by conducting experiments on animals. It was then when a German scientist discovered that the germs of the disease were transmitted through saliva through animal bite. During the same era, French chemist Louis Pasteur developed the first successful treatment of rabies. In the early 1950s the Center of Disease Control in the United States of America reported the first case of Rabies transmitted through bats.

As stated earlier, stray animals are more prone to rabies as compared to the domestic ones. However, rabies among humans and domestic animals is possible and is acquired due to bites of stray animals. The disease among human beings and domestic animals can be avoided by taking precautionary measures. Firstly, human beings should avoid contact with stray animals. Secondly, people who keep domestic pets must make sure that their animals are vaccinated against rabies by a licensed veterinarian as per the laws outlined by the government of United States of America. Over the years, advancement in researches has significantly helped in taking control over the disease. According to medical experts, if regular and timely vaccination of domestic animals is ensured, the risk of catching rabies can be reduced to a significant level.

Among animals, so far there has been no concrete scientific evidence based on which a person can tell whether an animal is rabid or not only by looking at it. For this reason, it is not advisable to get into contact or to feed stray animals. However, there are certain symptoms that are commonly noticed among rabid humans and animals. The major symptoms that occur among rabid animals include aggression, staggering or stumbling, biting for no reason, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Apart from that initial symptoms among human beings include ordinary symptoms such as occasional fever, headaches, vomiting and discomfort, anxiety, stress tension and drooling. It must however be noted that occurrence of these symptoms may not necessarily mean that a person or animal is rabid and therefore it can only be assured by getting the suspected person or animal tested against the disease by a certified doctor. This is because the above mentioned symptoms can also commonly occur as any other ordinary disease.

As far as treatment of the disease is considered, unfortunately, so far there could have been no breakthrough in finding out a cure for rabies once it has already occurred. Therefore the only possible method to avoid to getting the disease is sticking to a 'prevention is better than cure' strategy. If a human being is bitten by an animal, one should be immunized by getting vaccinated from human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG). Surveys have proved that if timely vaccination is provided, patients of animal bite did not develop rabies. If left untreated, the disease leads to death and in general, it becomes inevitable once the symptoms start to occur.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the prevalence of rabies in the state of Florida. It evaluates to what degree the disease is present in the state, both among human beings and animals. It further evaluates the types of species in Florida, which commonly carry rabies.

Literature Review

As mentioned earlier, the history of rabies dates back to more than forty centuries ago while the disease was first discovered in the United States of America during the eighteenth century. Since then, scientists, academic researchers and medical experts have invested an immense amount of time and money in researching the disease.

Bigler, Mclean and Trevino (1973) carried out a research on raccoon rabies in Florida. They claim that rabies among raccoons in Florida, have been documented since 1953. According to Bigler, Mclean and Trevino (1973), 68% of all reported cases of rabies between the years 1969 and 1972, pertained to raccoons. This indicates that raccoons are one of the most highly rabies prone animals in the state of Florida. Bigler, Mclean and Trevino (1973) further claim, that during the time span of 1962 and 1972, out of 114 people that were bitten or scratched by rabid animals, 65% were reportedly bitten or scratched by raccoons. This is evidence that indicates that rabies is present among raccoons in the state of Florida more than any other animal. In their research, Bigler, Mclean and Trevino (1973) made two major revelations. One, they concluded that the intensity of spread of rabies among raccoons correlates to their breeding season. They concluded that during the breeding season the intensity of rabies spread increases much more than normal season. Secondly, Bigler, Mclean and Trevino (1973) also concluded that that the spread of rabies virus is also highly related to population density of the settlements. They claim that the disease was more rapidly widespread in areas with higher population density as compared to areas with lower population density.

Apart from raccoons, researches that were carried out between 1950s and 1960s also showed a high rate of presence of rabies virus in foxes and bats in Florida. Jennings, Schneider, Lewis and Scatterday (1960) document the high prevalence of rabies virus present among gray foxes. They further document the fact that these rabid foxes were abundantly found near densely populated human settlements and reportedly attacked humans and other valuable livestock. Florida. Jennings, Schneider, Lewis and Scatterday (1960) however claim, that it is not possible to accurately determine the accurate percentage of deaths occurring due to rabid foxes as during that time, another deadly disease among population of foxes was also reported. Therefore, it cannot be concretely proved that what percentage of them constituted the rabies infected foxes. Jennings, Schneider, Lewis and Scatterday (1960) claim that 33% of rabid animals examined by the Florida State Board of Health Laboratories between the time period of 1948 to 1958 were reported to be gray foxes.

Coming to more recent times, reports issued by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention claims that rabies in the state of Florida has increased to a significant level in a recent past. He further claims that this increase of rabies virus has never been as high in Florida since the 1940s. These reports claim that the primary reason behind this rapid increase of rabies virus is the import of coyotes from Texas by the hunting clubs in Florida. He states that the year 1994 saw a 500% increase in the rabies virus in just five years time. The recent research reports published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention also assert the fact that translocation of raccoons have been a major contributing factor in the spread of the rabies virus in the eastern parts of the United States of America. Considering this fact, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has passed legislation that prohibits translocation of raccoons into and out of Florida without FWC Permit (Florida Department of Health, 2011).

Rupprecht and Smith (1994) claimed that the rabies virus reemerged in the state of Florida among raccoons. They related this reemergence to the changes in human demographics. According to Rupprecht and Smith (1994), raccoons were abundantly found in densely populated urban and sub-urban settlements.

Jackson (2000) highlighted another important source of rabies transmission. It was generally assumed that rabies can only be transmitted due to bite or scratch. Jackson (2000) reported cases where some recipients of organ transplantations which included lungs, cornea and kidneys, died. On diagnosing the cause of death, the presence of rabies virus was discovered in their bodies. These recipients received their transplanted organs from brain dead donors that were earlier brought in to the hospitals. When medical history of those donors was diagnosed, it was discovered that the donor had a medical history of travelling to areas where rabies viruses were abundantly common. The reason why doctors did not initially focused on this aspect was because technically when an organ is transplanted; it is only tested for its functionality and other relevant eligibility tests. Neurological symptoms are generally not considered in an organ transplantation.

Methodology

In order to evaluate the prevalence of rabies in the state of Florida, both primary and secondary data was collected and analyzed. Secondary data was collected using previous research journals of wildlife and medicines. Data was also used from statistical reports published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Primary data was collected by carrying out surveys in hospitals and clinics in different towns of Florida. They were asked about the number of patients they have been receiving for vaccination against rabies and the number of patients that has been diagnosed with rabid.

Data Analysis

The following table shows the prevalence of rabies in Florida between 2003 and 2009. This table shows the cases of rabies that were reported in the state of Florida during the said time span.

(Center of Disease Control and Prevention)

The above table shows the dynamics of rabies infection in the state of Florida between 2003 to 2009. The table shows that from 2003 to 2007 the spread of rabies was rising persistently. The spread of the virus reached its peak in the year 2007. It was evidently more common among wild animals as compared to the domestic ones. It is reported that domestic animals primarily get the disease when attacked by wild animals that carry the rabies virus. A total of 1339 cases of rabies were reported between 2003 and 2009. Among these cases raccoons constitute 60.6% of the cases. These were followed by foxes (12.4%) and bats (10.9%) respectively. The remaining 16.1% cases were distributed among other animals mainly cats, dogs and skunks. The figures nevertheless are dominated by raccoons, foxes and bats that have maintained a constant history of carrying rabies since the disease was first discovered in the state of Florida. The reason why spread from raccoons has increased so much is that the spread is catalyzed by interstate translocation of raccoons. According to the above statistics, only one rabid human case was reported during this time period. It must be noted that the statistical table shown above gives information only about the cases that were reported by the authorities. There might still be a high number of rabid animals that are not diagnosed and for that reason there is a high chance that the figures shown in the given table may be highly understated. The threat of rabies virus among domestic animals and humans have however been controlled to a significant level by timely vaccinations of domestic animals and bitten human beings.

Rural vs. Urban

As far as Florida is concerned, there have been no concrete evidence found whether rabies is more common in rural or urban settings. This is because within Florida, the main source of acquiring rabies is raccoons. The fact that raccoons can live anywhere and can eat anything enables them to exist in abundance regardless of the fact that whether the area is rural or urban. This means that both rural and urban areas are equally likely to be prone to rabies. However, past researches have shown that rabies is more widespread in areas that are more densely populated as compared to those that are less densely populated.

Rabies World Wide

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rabies is most common in Asia and Africa. In the western world, the disease is nearly eradicated among domestic animals by efficient vaccination and animal control legislations; however certain wildlife species may still carry the dis ease. Rabid around the world is generally found in carnivore mammals and can be transmitted from one mammal to another through biting or scratching. Around the world, the animals that are highly known to be carrying rabies viruses include bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks and stray cats and dogs. Among these raccoons are known to be most popular as far as carrying rabies is concerned. Among domestic animals dogs are the most commonly rabid animals.

Countries such as Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, Belgium, Cyprus, Faeroe Islands, Czech Republic and Denmark are considered to be rabies free. On natural grounds, these countries are less likely to get rabies because of their geographical isolation. To make it further secure, the respective governments of these countries have taken strict measures regarding domestic pets, translocation of animals and other animal control measures. This enables them to enjoy a rabies free status. On the other hand geographical such as Bangladesh, French speaking Africa, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Philippines, China, India, Peru, Mexico and Rural Alaska. The main reasons due to high rate of rabies prevalence in these countries are mainly economical. According to the World Health Organization, the cost of post-exposure prophylaxis immunization in these countries range between U.S.$40 to U.S.$49. On the other hand, the average daily income per person in these countries ranges between U.S.$1 to U.S.$2. Moreover, the medical facilities available in these countries are substandard and many people do not have access to health facilities. Due to low literacy rates, most people in these countries are not even aware of rabies threats. To top that, another dilemma is that the respective governments of these countries do not allocate sufficient budgets and do not take effective measures in order to control the disease. Again, the problem that these governments face is lack of necessary technological and financial support that is essential in order to minimize risks of rabies threat. It must be noted that no exact official record of rabies cases is available for these countries as the governments of these countries do not maintain a record unlike United Kingdom and United States of America.

Discussion

Rabies has an old history and while there have been an extensive research carried out in many developed countries so that the disease can be combated; there are still many parts of the world where little could have been done to fight the disease. According to scientist and medical researchers, the spread of rabies is dependent on epizootic factors to a great extent. It is mostly found in wild life populations in densely populated settings. The disease is much less prevalent in, geographically isolated areas. There have been a persistent seasonal aspect in the spread of disease have been observed. Almost in all regions, the spread of disease has been observed to have increased in certain seasons while declined in others. Initially, dogs dominated the most rabid population in the state of Florida and through these dogs the disease was transmitted to other stray as well as domestic dogs and cats. However in the late 1940s government managed to take control of the spread of the disease among cats and dogs. By this time the disease was discovered in wildlife populations mainly raccoons. Since then raccoons have maintained a consistent history of carrying rabies viruses and despite of constant efforts by the state governments and the federal government of the United States of America, the disease could not have been eradicated completely. The threat of spread of rabies increased to a great extent because raccoons are easily adaptable to urban setting and many urban people started to develop an interest in keeping raccoons as pets. This increased the threat of human rabies and particularly children are more likely to get it because od there closer contact with pets.